1. Field of Invention
The present invention relates to an improved display aimed at assisting a user in the prioritisation of effort applied to reading and responding to messages.
2. Description of the Related Art
Email systems generally provide the user with a number of core directories, or folders, which usually comprise: an inbox to which all new messages are added; an outbox containing those messages which have been sent; and a deleted or trash folder containing recently deleted messages—once an update, such as a replication with a server, has been requested this folder is usually emptied.
In addition to these folders, users are usually provided with the ability to create hierarchies of new folders, for example one for each of their different work activities, and store emails in those folders and sub-folders. Traditionally, the user is provided with the ability to view summary information for a list of the email messages in a folder. The summary information includes: the originator of the message; the subject heading; and the date and time of receipt.
In addition to this information, some email systems, such as Lotus Notes, enable the user to allocate categories to a message such as: urgent; for your information; or company confidential. These additional categories are also shown when viewing the summary information for email messages in each folder. For example, Lotus Notes displays those messages flagged as urgent with a red exclamation mark alongside them.
A challenge being faced by the many email recipients, particularly in the commercial sector, is that the volume of email received is increasing. In some extreme cases email recipients may receive in excess of a hundred messages a day relating to any one of their ongoing work activities. Some email systems are providing agent based capabilities which automatically filter email to reduce the volume of apparently unactioned messages.
Nonetheless, in deciding how to deal with messages, recipients face the following problems: it is difficult to prioritise the actioning of messages. This is because reading email is time consuming, especially when very large numbers of messages are received, and simply scanning the directory lists represents an ineffective approach to prioritisation. For example, unimportant messages are occasionally flagged as urgent whilst very important messages may be received from an unknown sender with no subject listed; the current email display mechanisms, in particular those which use folders and lists of message, do not necessarily represent the recipient's priorities; not all email requires immediate action and in some cases a recipient may wish to take time to consider a response. In such case the email must either be filed or it gradually drifts down the email display. In either case it is possible to forget a response; messages are occasionally filed incorrectly and are then overlooked in subsequent reviews; and email psychology tends to focus individuals on maintaining a tidy inbox as opposed to an effective prioritisation of work activity.
It is an object of the present invention to provide an improved display aimed at assisting users in prioritisation of work through the use of message priority definition and graphical display of prioritised messages.
Accordingly, the invention provides a method for generating a prioritized view of a plurality of messages, comprising the steps of: defining one or more concepts against which a message can be prioritized, the or each concept comprising one or more conditions against which a message can be tested; for each message, generating a fit to a selected one or more of said concepts, said fit corresponding to whether or not said message fulfils said conditions; and creating a display representative of the respective fits of said messages to said one or more selected concepts.
While the problems addressed by the invention are described in terms of email messages, it will be seen that the invention can be applied to the prioritisation of work associated with messages of any type.
Nonetheless, in relation to email systems, a discussion thread is the term used for the group of messages resulting from users replying to messages received from another user. Some email systems provide functionality enabling the user to view the summary information of messages grouped in discussion threads. In a preferred embodiment of the present invention, the messages are grouped into discussion threads before being displayed according to the invention.